Just when the cop genre looked to be dead, along comes a show to remind everyone of the halcyon days of "NYPD Blue" (when it was good, not in its currently tired state) and "Homicide: Life on the Street." You know, the days when cops -- not mafiosi, sexy single girls in New York or funeral directors in Los Angeles -- were the ones who drove you to the set for appointment television.

"The Shield," the first original drama series on the FX cable channel, is a stunning piece of television about a rogue cop and that dangerous line between effective police work and ethical transgressions. This series is brutal and frank, with little wasted energy or misdirection.

Michael Chiklis leaps off the screen as maverick Detective Vic Mackey, all bald-headed, unbridled bulldog aggression. He leads an elite unit called the Strike Team in a very dangerous Los Angeles precinct. Chiklis is a long, long way from "The Commish" here, instantly becoming one of television's best characters, a man coiled in rage and driven by a false sense of real-world justice.

You can't take your eyes off Chiklis, partly because his squat, buffed body and shaved head make him look as if he's going to punch his way through the TV set and pound you unconscious. The producers have been careful to give him shards of compassion, but not so much that he becomes an anti-hero. His Detective Mackey is dangerous, and you know it, instantly. He makes "NYPD Blue's" Sipowicz look like an elderly docent at a gallery for safe painters.

But "The Shield" has a lot more going for it than Chiklis' tour de force performance. Like "Homicide," it has a depth of various characters to flesh it out and give it heft for future episodes. CCH Pounder is wonderful as the levelheaded, weary Detective Claudette Wyms. Her partner, Detective Holland "Dutch" Wagenbach, is great in "the box," much like Andre Braugher's Detective Pembleton on "Homicide."

There's also a conflicted beat cop, Danielle "Danny" Sofer, who's training a rookie partner. However, the main story line of "The Shield" remains the battle between the new precinct chief, Capt. David Aceveda (Benito Martinez), and the rogue Strike Team.

It's clear that Aceveda -- a textbook cop, not a "street" cop -- wants to be mayor someday, and he's bent on stringing up Detective Mackey as his big- fish prize.

"The Shield" seems utterly original while simultaneously recalling all sorts of great cop shows. There's a gritty, no-nonsense aspect that hints at the best British cop shows, like "Prime Suspect" (as opposed to the glossy- grit of "NYPD Blue"); there's the mental gymnastics of "Homicide" -- where they rarely fired a gun and yet the character-driven dialogue was so taut you dared not get up; and even the strain of bad-guy energy and mystery that drove "EZ Streets."

Collectively, that's quite a pedigree. But "The Shield" is its own show because it feels modern, as if it's letting viewers into the ethically suspect parts of police work -- headline-worthy realities of 21st century turf battles between good and bad on public streets. Oakland's now-infamous "Riders" come to mind, as do some of the more notorious aspects of the Los Angeles and New York cop scandals.

The "Homicide" lineage is very apparent in the first couple of episodes of "The Shield." Reed Diamond from "Homicide" has a role here that is dipped in dramatic irony. Fans of the former show will make the shocking connection early on. Clark Johnson, another "Homicide" alum, directs the pilot and three of the first five episodes. Look closely, and you'll see more "Homicide" players.

"The Shield" is already being talked about in the same breath as "The Sopranos," but that's an easy, unfair example. Any time something really special appears to trump what we're used to on network television, the "Sopranos" analogies get trotted out. "The Shield" is special and will stand on its own.

FX, a basic-cable staple, has allowed flashes of nudity and gratuitous swearing, raw violence and sexual references to permeate "The Shield," giving it that realistic, adult-content style. This is a show that merits its 10 p.m. time slot, and just because FX isn't HBO doesn't mean parents should let their guards down here.

But stylized cable flash isn't what moves "The Shield." The writing is superb, the acting performances top notch, and there are plenty of other nuances that, compacted, make this cop show one painful punch in the gut.

The question now is whether viewers will find FX -- even the best dramas on basic cable have had real difficulty getting noticed. Don't worry about longevity, however. FX has already committed itself to 13 episodes. If you're looking for the next great cop show, don't miss any of them.